them, and to recommend and impart them to others; that we may all be renewed thereby in the temper and disposition of our minds, and moulded into a conformity to thee in holiness and righteousness, and may at length become in some degree fitted for that everlasting kingdom and happiness for ever, which, of thine infinite goodness, thou hast promised us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, unto thee, O Father, who art the living and true God, be rendered all praise, thanksgiving, and an increasing obedience, by us and by all thy rational creation, for ever and

ever.

May the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, make us perfect, strengthen, settle us! To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever!

May 3, 1778.

SERMON VIII.

MATTHEW iii. 3.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying; "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight."

THE

HE passage is found in Isaiah xl. 4. He had immediately before, in the preceding chapter, been foretelling the Babylonian captivity. When, upon the prospect of their deliverance from that calamity, instead of dwelling upon it, the prophet is carried out by a divine inspiration to foretell a deliverance from a much greater calamity, from the dominion of sin and death, to be accomplished for them by Almighty God, who would appoint a messenger, a herald to proclaim his coming amongst them, and to prepare all things for it.

We have the authority of our Saviour and of John the Baptist for applying this prophecy to the first opening of the Gospel by the preaching of John, and the introduction of the kingdom of God amongst men.

The

The passage is quoted more fully by St. Luke, iii. 4, 5, 6, and stands thus in the prophet: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness;" or, "A voice crieth: In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together the salvation of our God: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

Before we proceed further, it may be proper to explain some of the language here made use of;-why, for instance, it is said of John the Baptist, that he prepared the way of Jehovah; or, as it is otherwise expressed, in another prophecy of this event, when near its accomplishment, (Luke i. 76.) "that John should be the prophet of the Highest, to go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways?"

Did then Jehovah, or the most high God, indeed come upon earth, upon the appearance

of John?

I answer; That it is a way of speaking generally used and well understood, to say

that

what

what is done in the name or by the command of another, is done by the person himself.

Thus (Acts xii. 1, 2.) you read that "Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword;"-killed him, not himself, but by the hands of the executioner.

So John the Baptist, in preparing the way for Christ, prepared it for God himself, because Christ acted in the name and by the authority of God, and was sent by him.

And God might be said to come to men by Christ, his messenger and great prophet sent by him.

This way of speaking was familiar to the Jews, and they found no difficulty in comprehending, that when God sent a prophet or especial messenger to them, it was in some measure as if he visited and ca meto them himself.

So (in Luke vii. 16.) after our Saviour had by a word speaking raised a dead person to life, it is said; "There came a fear upon all: and they glorified God, saying; that a great prophet is risen up among us; and, that God hath visited his people."

VOL. I.

L

It

It is in the same way, that our Saviour says, that those who kindly entertained him entertained God who sent him, and that seeing him was seeing the Father, who manifested himself by him.

Matt. x. 40; "He that receiveth you, receiveth me, and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me.' John xiv. 9; "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father."

So the Apostle says, (2 Cor. v. 19.) "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself:" i. e. he appeared and acted by Christ.

This brief explanation shows how intelligible the Scriptural language is concerning Christ, and concerning God coming and dwelling with his people, when Christ appeared; and may enable us to read those sacred books with more satisfaction and benefit, and without that embarrassment and confusion of making to themselves more Gods than one, which many Christians have fallen into.

I now proceed to lay before you one or two practical reflections which arise from it, and from the passage before us. And

I.

It was great benignity and condescension in

God